[An excellent Edwardian souvenir photo album chronicling the trio sailing on the SS Prinzess Irene with North German Lloyd Lines in Oct. 1909 through the Azores, a stop in Naples, and then onto India. Including a combination of Albumen and silver gelatin photographs, they attend a state dinner with British and Indian royalty, tour the sights in Calcutta, view a man-eating Tiger, visit Jeypore, and then sail onto Singapore, and attend a dinner at Government House on March 2, 1910; (together with) nine loose mounted albumen photographs of the Taj Mahal, Temple of Tanjore, Jessamine Tower, the Great Temple of Madura, and the Pearl Mosque, located inside the Red Fort in Delhi].

[n.p.: Mr. & Mrs. Rutherford, 1909-1910]. Oblong 4to. 11.5 x 7.5 in. [46 pp (unpaginated).], on thick gray card stock, mounted on green linen hinges at gutter margin. With 56 silver gelatin & albumen photographs (3 hand-coloured), 1 RPPC, sized from 2.5 x 4.25 in. up to 6.75 x 9.75 in., several of the photos have descriptive text w/in the negative at lower margin, some w/ lettering in manuscript below the images; seating chart for dinner with the Viceroy, two ALS invitations on letterhead, dance card, menu, and clipping touting the attendees. Recent leather post-binder, lettering stamped on front cover (occasional fading to a few images, some albumen photos w/ wrinkling from being applied to boards, occasional edgewear, couple minor tears), still a VG exemplar; Nine albumen photos sized from 7 x 9.25 in. up to 8.5 x 11 in., uniformly mounted on 11 x 14 in. gray studio board, and 8 of the 9 w/ manuscript notes in bold hand on versos (minor edgewear, a few corners w/ minor wear), still a VG set of images. This intriguing souvenir album for a voyage on the SS Prinzess Irene through the Mediterranean and onto India and Singapore opens with photos on shipboard of the Rutherfords and Miss Weir with their small dog companion. They have incorporated three albumen photos of Naples, including a panoramic view of Naples, St. Martin’s Charterhouse the Neapolitan Monastery, and Santa Lucia street. Additional views on shipboard as they sail to India, including a view of camels and desert dunes along the Suez Canal. Upon their arrival in Calcutta, India they are invited and attend a state diner with Sir Syed Hussain Ali Bahadur (b. 1875), the Nawab of Murshidabad, two Maharaja’s, British officers, and Baron Charles Hardinge, Viceroy of India, with menus and invitation included, and a mounted hand-coloured view of the Nawab. The menu featured Filets de Canetons au Foie Gras, Mousses de Volaille, Petits Rolls Mayonnaise, Plum Cake, Bavarois Chocolat, Pistache, and Macedonian Champaign, while the musical accompaniment featured old favorites of Teddy Bear’s Picnic, Die Meistersinger by Wagner, ballet music from Faust, and compositions by Rosse. Street scenes of markets, native dress, elephants owning the road, as well as several different wagons pulled by horses, camels and oxen. Also included are albumen views of pilgrims washing in the Ganges at Benares [Varanasi], Hawa Mahal or Palace of the Winds at Jeypore, street scene in Jeypore depicts oxen, market, buildings, by Bourne & Shepard whose images were marketed throughout India by agents and wholesale distributors. From there the trio voyage onto Singapore, shown in images of Kampong Bugis along the Kallang River with a native in their boat, with thatched homes built on stilts; a bustling port, views along palm tree lined streets, a bustling market scene, elephants washing, as well as a particularly striking scene of oxen pulling a large loaded woven cart. The nine separate views include albumen photos of the entrance gate to the Taj Mahal, a detail shot, the inner courtyard, and screen around the the tombs of Shah Jehan and Mumtaz Mahal, three striking and large albumen photos of the Thanjavur temple site, including the Brihadishavara Temple, and the monumental Gopuras gateways, and finally the Pearl Mosque. The SS Prinzess Irene was an 18,000 ton lier launched in 1900 for North German Lloyd, was seized in 1917 in the United States, renamed the USS Pocahontas, and eventually sold back to North German Lloyd in 1922, first renamed the Bremen, and then the Karlsruhe and sailing until 1932.